Maps

In our map collection you will find valuable historical maps from the 16th century onwards as well as current maps of Saxony and topographical maps of Germany and Europe. In addition, there are numerous views of places from the 17th to the 19th century. In recent years we have been able to expand our holdings by almost 10,000 individual sheets. It currently comprises around 185,000 maps and views.

Virtual exploration of historical landscapes

Our map forums offer you online access to a large part of our map collection.

Map forum

About 32,000 of the most important cartographic sources of the map collection - especially on the history and regional studies of Saxony - are available to you in high-resolution digitalised form in the Map Forum.

Virtual Map Forum

In the Virtual Map Forum, more than 9,000 georeferenced maps are presented in 3D view. Georeferencing - i.e. the placement of maps in a geospatial coordinate system - allows you to superimpose older maps on top of a current map with pinpoint accuracy and a few mouse clicks. The diverse functions of the Virtual Map Forum open up numerous application possibilities. For example, you can use historical comparative maps to narrow down the time of first development for the location of a present-day plot of land in Dresden. You can also find out, for example, whether a particular house was affected by the flood of the century in 1845 or by the bombings in 1945. Geological maps can be used to view lignite and mineral deposits. And the equidistant and ordnance survey maps can be used to trace which villages fell victim to open-cast mining and which new settlements were built.

Support wanted! We are looking forward to your help in georeferencing further maps and in specifying already georeferenced maps! All information can be found on the help page under the keyword georeferencing.

Map forumVirtual map forum

Research online

You can search the entire holdings of the map collection in the SLUB catalogue. Simply filter your search by map - then you will also see whether the respective map exists in digitised form. Or you can browse directly in the map forum.

In the Virtual Map Forum, some of the digitised maps are available in georeferenced form. On the help page of the Virtual Map Forum we have compiled all the information you need to use the service step by step. In this video you can also follow the georeferencing of an old map in the Virtual Map Forum using an example.

Do you have a map that you would like to have digitised? Please feel free to send us a digitisation request.

Use in the SLUB

You can view the original maps from the SLUB catalogue in the Collections ReadingRoom and in the Map Reading Room by appointment.

Feel free to contact us! Simply book an individual consultation via the knowledge bar. Contact Dominik Stoltz Tel.: +49 351 4677-530 E-mail: dominik.stoltz@slub-dresden.de